Friday, March 31, 2017

Certified Agile Leadership Training with Olaf Lewitz

The Trust Artist, Olaf Lewitz, along with his partner, Christine Neidhardt, are gearing ready for their upcoming TrustTemenos Certified Agile Leadership trainings. Certified Agile Leadership trainings are a new, advanced level of training classes being offered through the Scrum Alliance. In this interview Olaf and I discuss the reason for his TrustTemenos CAL class, how it can help people become better Agile leaders, and the value of Certified Agile Leadership.

Safety is a very hot topic in the Agile space right now. During our conversation about safety, Olaf shared one of the most powerful things I have heard during an interview this year:

“When you talk to people about trust, it rises. When you talk to people about safety, they get scared.”

Every conversation I have with Olaf leaves me more aware and (I hope) a bit smarter than I was when it began. I hope you will get as much value from listening to this as I did from recording the conversation.

And you can find links to Olaf’s upcoming classes and events, as well as his contact info, below the show notes.



Show Notes


  • 00:07 Podcast Intro
  • 01:27 Begins
  • 01:57 An overview of Agile Leadership Training
  • 04:48 A skeptical response to the idea of Agile Leadership Training and Olaf’s response
  • 07:16 Developing a thinking model to understand what we need and how that drives our actions
  • 09:11 The power of metaphor in leadership and Dave’s aversion to boats
  • 11:03 Giving people tools to grow their awareness of how they show up
  • 11:34 These classes cover advanced leadership topics - not the basics
  • 12:16 “If you trust in yourself… you will still get beaten by people”
  • 13:05 Skepticism is an important part of any class and any transition
  • 13:32 It’s about being intentional and aware
  • 15:23 There is a specific type of learning that involves being uncomfortable because what you believe is challenged
  • 15:57 Extending the question of leadership beyond work and helping them understand more about their awareness and intention
  • 17:00 Olaf shares a story about his first experience working as a boss
  • 21:29 The advice Olaf about give his 29 year-old self about being a boss for the firs time
  • 22:23 It’s okay to ask for help
  • 24:05 A question about safety and what it means to create a safe space
  • 25:42 When you talk to people about trust, it rises, when you talk to people about safety, they get scared
  • 27:22 What is Certified Agile Leadership Training? What level of knowledge experience do you need to attend?
  • 28:08 What will CAL training do for a leader/manager in an Agile organization?
  • 29:28 Where to learn more about Olaf’s upcoming classes, where you can see him speak and how to get in touch with him if you have questions.



Links from the Podcast




Contacting Olaf


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Sunday, March 26, 2017

Don Kim - I Think, Therefore I Plan


A few weeks ago Don Kim put up a blog post challenging the value of certifications. I reached out to Don in hopes of doing an interview about it and found out he’s also written a new book “I think Therefore I Plan”. In this interview we discuss the pros and cons of different certifications, taking an artisan approach to managing projects as well as Don’s new book.

You can find Don’s book here: http://amzn.to/2n7VEHu
You can find Don’s blog post about certifications here: http://bit.ly/2okDUZA


Show Notes:

00:07 Interview Start
00:30 What is a Human APEE
03:38 What is an Artisan approach to Project Management
05:15 Don’s Philosophy of Project Management
07:22 Trying to slow down and do less
08:21 Don explains his way of approaching project work and the reason for the book
10:56 How has the traditional vs. Agile debate changed over the past few years
12:53 Seeing the value in every project you work on  - regardless of how you got it
16:15 The downside of certifications
17:29 The positive aspects of certifications
18:03 There is more to project management training than just PMP certification
19:48 Making the case for the value certifications can provide and how it can be misunderstood
23:22 Does it make sense for people to want to have a way of gauging their professional achievement?
23:55 What Don expected from PMP certification and how he went deep with the Kerzner to get the most learning out of it (instead of just passing the test)
26:41 Is it the certification that is an issue, or the way people interpret it as an end point rather than a beginning
27:50 An overview of the approach Don’s book takes towards the art of Project Management
30:56 Where you can find Don’s book and how you can reach him with follow up questions
31:54 Podcast Ends

You can reach Don Kim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donkim/

Feedback/Comments: drunkenpm@gmail.com

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Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Agile Coach to Agile Gamer - Peter Saddington

Peter Saddington, the founder of AgileScout.com, is an Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Trainer, Author, Entrepreneur and Scientist. On March 4, 2017 he put up a blog post on AgileScout.com announcing a new experiment he is running... on himself.

Taking a step back from helping others adopt Agile, Peter is now using Agile to transform his life, and he's starting with his career. He's going from being a full time Agile Consultant to a full time professional video game player.  It might sound a bit insane, but his reasoning and research are sound. In this interview I got the chance to talk with Peter about his new experiment, why he's doing it and how he approaching transforming his life.

You can read Peter's manifesto here:  https://agilescout.com/time-for-change/
You can find Peter's Videos here: https://First15.show
You can follow Peter on Twitter at https://twitter.com/first15tv


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Saturday, March 11, 2017

The Heart of Agile Conference

I'm very psyched to be presenting at The Heart of Agile Conference in Pittsburgh, on April 27-28.

There are a ton of great people presenting and I'm very psyched to be able to be a part of it.

If you'd like to check out a recent interview I did with Alistair Cockburn on the Designing Quality of Life, you can find it here.


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Monday, March 06, 2017

Scrum in School - A Case Study of Grandview Prep's Transformation

This podcast features an interview with two educators from Grandview Prep in Boca Raton, FL. Aileen Palmer and Susan Rose have been working with the Scrum Alliance, John Miller and Mike Vizdos to help the school implement Scrum for both the students and school administration. The interview explains how Scrum got started at Grandview, the impact it has had on the students, as well as the benefits and challenges they’ve experienced along the way.



Show Notes

01:16  Interview Begins
02:01 How Grandview Prep got interested in Scrum
04:59 Agile can be a lot easier for kids than adults
05:52 How Scrum has changed the way the students at Grandview collaborate
06:32 How the kids self-organize to make sure everyone is participating in the work
06:59 How teaching Scrum to a junior in high school impacts their ability to get work done and prepare for college
07:54 How visualizing the work is helping the students understand how to break work down into manageable pieces
08:35 Teaching students and teachers about how to break down the work and plan things out
10:20 Differences between how 1st graders and older kids are using Scrum at Grandview
11:17 The hardest parts of getting started with Scrum in school
13:17 Sometimes the transparency and seeing how much you have to do is overwhelming for adults
14:03 The struggle between Trello and Post-its
14:59 Student rankings and grading at Grandview - and how it has been impacted by Scrum
17:14 How using Scrum has improved the students and teachers ability to give and receive feedback
17:45 The reaction from parents/stakeholders to the introduction of Scrum at Grandview Prep
20:28 What Scrum means for the quiet kids who like to sit back and let others lead and drive the work
21:30 How will Grandview measure success to determine if/how Scrum is helping
22:33 The support Grandview Prep received from the Scrum Alliance 
23:14 Advice for educators who are interested in learning more or trying to implement it at their school 
24:39 How to get in touch with Susan and Aileen to learn more about Scrum at Grandview Prep
26:10 Wrap up
26:48 Podcast End

For more information


Grandview Prep Info and Contacts

Grandview Prep
http://Grandviewprep.net

 Aileen Palmer 
apalmer@Grandviewprep.net 
Susan Rose
srose@Grandviewprep.net

Scrum Alliance Info and Contacts

Scrum Alliance
https://www.scrumalliance.org/
John Miller
agileclassrooms@gmail.com
Mike Vizdos
http://www.michaelvizdos.com/
Heather Leigh
hleigh@scrumalliance.org

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Thursday, March 02, 2017

Should the PMO go away?

(Resposted from the LeadingAgile site)
The Project Management Office (PMO) has traditionally been responsible for providing governance over projects, programs and portfolios; ensuring projects are managed according the standards set forth by the PMO; and to provide reporting on progress to leadership. When Agile is introduced into an organization, along with new ways of tracking work, self-organizing teams and new ways of understanding priority, the value the PMO provides comes into question. In a recent blog post, LeadingAgile SVP and Executive Consultant Marty Bradley addressed the question “Should the PMO Go Away?” In this episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, Marty and Dave dig deeper on this topic and explore what PMO’s (and PMO Leaders) need to do in order to remain relevant to an organization transitioning to Agile.



Show Notes

00:08 Podcast Begins
00:35 What does a LeadingAgile Executive Coach actually do 
01:40 When the Executives say “Stop saying Agile.”, it’s actually a good thing.
3:05 Should the PMO go away? Who’s asking and why?
07:12 Why do we need a PMO and governance if the teams are supposed to be self organizing?
08:38 If we do not have trust, how can we have self-organization and Agility?
09:39 All night deployments and the impact of not trusting the team
10:43 When the people who “know better” create a system that fosters missed deadlines and failure, they create a very dysfunctional form of predictability
12:15 How the PMO can maintain its’ relevancy in an organization transitioning to Agile.
13:27 How do we maintain the necessary non-agile elements when we transition to Agile?
14:55 How can we have more empathy for the members of the PMO and the massive personal and career change they are facing in maintaining the stability of a traditional approach while supporting the change to Agile?
16:29 Changing the focus and the metrics used to track the work
17:10 The impact on Development Managers
18:12 Why would I want to eliminate the need for my own position (if we transition from waterfall to Agile)
18:42 Coping with transition: “This is my job,…I got a family…What am I supposed to do?”
19:55 Maintaining a balance between preserving the necessary domain knowledge and changing as fast as you can
20:29 What PMO Leaders need to know before the Agile transition team shows up - “Not everything needs to be perfect Agile.”
23:51 If I am in a PMO and I want to get up to speed and maintain my own relevancy, what do I need to learn? 
25:10 “I’d look at my company and figure out what is value in my company?” How do you define value?
27:02 Finding your organization’s own definition of value
27:46 Closeout

Contacting Marty


Contacting Dave


Related Links:

Feedback/Questions

If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at dave.prior@leadingagile.com

LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes

For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/


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